GENEVA, Ohio – Three members of the Carleton College men’s track and field team are gearing up to compete at the 2019 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which will be held from Thursday, May 23 through Saturday, May 25 at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio.

Due to a schedule change, sophomore Matthew Wilkinson (Minnetonka, Minn.) will now be the first Knight to hit the track. He owns the 11th-best seed time (9:06.82) in the 20-runner field and will compete in the preliminary round of the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 5:50 p.m. (ET) on Thursday. The top-five finishers from both prelims plus the four next-fastest times will advance to Saturday’s event finals at 11:45 a.m. (ET).

Wilkinson is looking to add another All-America accolade to his collection. At the 2019 NCAA Indoor Championships, he secured the honor with a sixth-place result in the 5,000-meter run.

Fresh off of his being named the Outstanding Track Athlete in the MIAC, Lucas Mueller (So./St. Paul, Minn./Nova Classical Academy) will make his debut at the NCAA Outdoor Championships just a few months after he achieved All-American status with a sixth-place finish in the 3000-meter run at the 2019 NCAA indoor meet.

Mueller will contend for the 10,000-meter run title, with the starting gun going off at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on Thursday. He owns the third-best qualifying time (29:45.74) in the field of 20 runners. Senior Tris Dodge (Oakland, Calif./College Prep) will also compete in the same event, boasting a seed time of 30:14.39, good for 11th-fastest. The duo recently went 1-2 in the 10K at the 2019 MIAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships for the second year in a row.

Mueller will have more work to do on Saturday, when he is slated to compete in the 5,000-meter run at 3:25 p.m. (ET). His seed time of 14:22.67 is eighth-fastest out of 20 entries. He also repeated as champion in the event at the MIAC Outdoor Championships.